Jijo received the award from former President Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam in the presence of Dr. A Sivathanu Pillai, CEO & MD of BrahMos Aerospace at a function in New Delhi recently.

“I am so excited and happy to receive this prestigious award. I sincerely thank my professors who have been the guiding light behind my achievement,” said Jijo, who is an engineering student. ‘Xerobot’ can be taught to replicate a particular activity by employing process automation.

“Ecosystems like Startup Village encourage students to work on multi-disciplinary industries like robotics, which require skills in computer science, electronics and electrical engineering. We are gearing up to support more students in their final year projects , which are highly relevant to bridge the industry-academia gap” said Sanjay Vijayakumar, Chairman of Startup Village.

Jijo informed that that the robot was undergoing further modification for application in industry with commercial potential. ‘Xerobot’ can be taught to perform any activity within its degrees of freedom using a controller arm and could then be embedded on to a standalone system. The currently developed model of the robotic palm has the potential to replicate the motions of human fingers.

Jijo started this project during his second year B Tech course at Amal Jyothi College, Kanjirapally. It is undergoing further development at the innovation club at Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, where he is pursuing his M Tech.

The project was shortlisted for technology validation at DST Lockheed Martin International Summit. It was also evaluated by the University of Texas at Austin as ‘a valid and novel concept with potential application in industry’.